At a Tuesday morning Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) keynote of the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show Gary Shapiro, President of the Consumer Electronics Association, did not waste much time in getting down to business, talking about serious issues.

Alluding to the upcoming Orwellian "Stop Online Piracy Act" (SOPA) (H.R. 3261), a visibly furious Mr. Shapiro commented, "[SOPA is championed by] politicians who are proudly unfamiliar with how the internet works, but who are well familiar with favors from well-heeled copyright extremists."

The sharp criticism drew a thunderous applause from the pro-technology audience.

Indeed Mr. Shapiro is on the money in this case. According to extensive research, anti-streaming lobbyists have engaged in a sweeping bribery scheme that paid for approximately 10 percent of all active Senators' total combined election costs.

SOPA's current form, being debated by Congress would be a federal death sentence for internet business and the American economy, Under the proposed law any site on the internet found to contain links to infringing content could be taken down for up to weeks at a time. This means, in essence that any online news site, any e-commerce site, any site that takes user content of any kind could easily be permanently destroyed by malicious posts -- posts that the site itself did not author or endorse.

Mr. Shapiro voiced support for the OPEN Act, an alternative proposal by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. The Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act ("The OPEN Act") removes much of SOPA's most sweeping federal power grab efforts, such as the link-related takedowns. While the OPEN Act has its flaws and detractors, clearly the internet industry likes it a lot better than SOPA. The propsal is supported by Google Inc. (GOOG), Facebook, and Twitter.